Pan-German, world citizen of European culture

Sabine Kurjo McNeill was born in Silesia in 1944 – in memory of her Sorb father – should he die in World War II. But swimming through the Elbe river saved him from becoming a Russian prisoner of war and he was united with her mother who saved her from the bombing in Dresden in February 1945.

She grew up in Bremerhaven, studied mathematics and computing in Darmstadt and had her first job as a software diagnostician at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. After a serious car accident on duty trip she was told that her pains were psychological which made her study humanistic and transpersonal psychology. She benefited so much from these insights and experiences that she organised European conferences.

After 15 years in Geneva a trip to the UK about computer conferencing motivated her to move to London in 1981 – with the vision of a ‘peace network’ of people and computers protecting our planet.

She soon met her Scottish husband with whom she wrote Only Connect – The Art and Technology of Networking. As an event organiser she created Turning Points at St. James’s Piccadilly in 1982 which she left in 1988 while it continues as ‘Alternatives’.

Sabine was divorced after 15 years when she began an odyssey in ‘splendid intellectual isolation’. At the same time she practised a social life with meaning by organising the Forum for Stable Currencies at the House of Lords and House of Commons, beginning her activities as independent web publisher.